Why Google Deserves More Respect Than Apple

Being a design person, I am often angry at Google. They don’t focus enough on interfaces. They lack consistency with their web services. They randomly shut things down. You’ve seen it. It’s frustrating.

Apple is stellar with these things, and I like to talk about how brilliant they are when it comes to design and connection and really caring about me having a great experience with my technology.

But that simultaneously reveals Apple’s worst flaw and Google’s best feature.

Apple excels at making me love my technology. Great. Admirable. But Google is trying to change the fucking world.

As a passionate Apple acolyte, I do not forget this. Google infuriates me when it comes to many of their designs, their interfaces, and the fact that their mobile platform seems like an ad-revenue-generating afterthought.

But when you look at the two companies—side by side—I can’t help but respect Google far more.

I’ll just be using Apple technology to do it.

Notes

I can argue that Apple also works at the world-influence level by inspiring people to create and share and interact. As someone who values the liberal arts over science, I can get behind that, but I’d like to see Apple doing more in the way of directly helping move us forward the way Google does.